In short VoIP stands for VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL. The key difference is that VoIP turns your call into data and transfers it over the internet digitally, instead of the older analog system we have all become used to.
VoIP is fast becoming the definitive choice for phone service for consumers and businesses alike due to advancement in broadband speeds and reliability. There is also a cost saving to be made, because VoIP uses the same fibre network as modern broadband, which means carriers and network providers will only have one network to support, instead of the two currently in operation.
IMPORTANT INFO: Learn more about the old system and when it is being switched off here.
Is VoIP phone reliable?
In short, YES.
VoIP uses your internet connection to route your calls, so VoIP is as reliable as your internet connection and with advancements in failover technology and utilising the vast mobile coverage in the UK as either a main, or backup connection and with alternatives like StarLink (see our blog on Starlink HERE)becoming readily available, you can expect 99.999% uptime as a minimum. Even if you don’t have a backup connection, the reliability of broadband and speeds are that much better, you are likely to have a problem free experience and save money at the same time.
VoIP Benefits
Having dealt with the old system, we can safely say that these are some real benefits from switching to VoIP:
- Cost Savings
- Any number anywhere
- Smart Features as standard
- Easily Scalable
- Manage your own users simply
- Better sound quality
- Total flexibility from desk to mobile
- Video conferencing included
- Keep your old number
Cost Savings
Hardware Savings
From a business perspective, traditional phone lines are costly. They require additional infrastructure in the office building, there are high costs to expanding your system as your business grows, generally you would have required an expensive, on-site, PBX system that would have been on a costly lease finance agreement, often totalling tens of thousands of pounds in total outlay, depending on the size of business and lines required.
VoIP negates the need for additional infrastructure into the building, you are only limited by the bandwidth of your internet connection when it comes to the number of calls you can handle simultaneously, you have no hardware required at all if you opt for softphones and best of all, the installation involves nothing more than receiving the phone and plugging it in, or just logging in to your softphone, or softphone app.
Installation Savings
Traditional business phone systems required additional lines to be installed in the building, VoIP eliminates the need for that. Traditionally, you would have needed a professional installation team to come in and set up the main PBX and the handsets. This is also not required for VoIP, you just log in or plug in and away you go, all the heavy lifting is handled remotely.
Maintenance Savings
In the past, having expensive hardware on site meant that you would need to make sure that your business critical phone system was well looked after. This means costly maintenance contracts that have a monthly fee on top of the line rental and included minutes. A cost that VoIP makes obsolete, meaning you can rest assured that your systems are always maintained and always up. If a physical phone breaks, no problem, log into the app or softphone and you’re up and running while a pre-configured replacement is shipped out.
Other Savings
With all of the benefits of VoIP in mind, below are some more savings that can help make your business more profitable and easier to manage.
- Remote Working – Save money on office space and let your team have the office number from wherever they need it.
- Add features at no extra cost, like auto-attendant, call queues, call recording and much more.
- Get calls to the right people without the need for a receptionist, use an auto-attendant to route your calls easily and efficiently.
- International calls are much cheaper with VoIP
Any Phone Number Anywhere
No longer do you need to be tied to your desk to be able to answer a business call, no longer do you need to set up costly redirects to mobiles or alternative numbers if you’re not able to get to the office. VoIP comes with virtual phone numbers, not tied to a location, so you can be in Madrid and be calling from a London number, or any other combination you can think of. Not only that, you could be in Madrid and then take that London number with you to Paris, or USA and as far as your clients are concerned, you’re in the office.
The flexibility that comes with VoIP as standard allows you and your team to balance travel and work, or remote working with time in the office in a completely seamless way.
Smart Features as Standard
With most good VoIP providers, you will automatically get the benefit of features normally reserved for “Big Business”. Below are a few of the features you can expect from your VoIP system:
- Music on Hold – as it describes, you can choose from various options and keep your customers chilled while they wait, with some relaxing tunes, or upload your own!
- Call Queues – Setup queues, where your calls will wait until an agent is available, set maximum numbers of people allowed in the queue and send people directly to voicemail to avoid long wait times at peak times.
- Analytics and Reporting – Keep track of your busy times, see who is making the most calls, track efficiency and call lengths easily and improve your customer experience by using the detailed data to optimise the way your phone system works.
- Auto- Attendant – route calls to the right people automatically by setting up your own digital receptionist. Get the right calls to the right people as fast as possible.
- Multi-Site Working – Let anyone work from anywhere, but work as if you are all in the same office, ring groups and call queues all work the same way, no matter where you and your employees are.
- Free Calls Between Users – Call your remote workers and office staff for free, no need to use your minutes to make internal calls or call a company or personal mobile, utilise your free internal minutes and make the most from your bundles.
- Ring Groups – Have specific phones ring for specific calls, use your auto attendant to route calls to specialised departments and teams.
- Call Logs – Have a record of all calls coming in and out and stay on top of your team’s activity at all times.
- Call Recording (30days) – Keep a record of important calls for training and quality purposes, protect yourself and your callers by making them aware the call is being recorded.
- Operation times – Set your business hours and make rules to send callers to a mailbox outside of hours, or ask them to call back during working hours.
- Audio & Video Conferencing – Included as standard, you can speak face to face, share your screen and message members of your team from the same screen.
- Call Monitoring – Make sure your staff are saying the right things, step in where required and keep the quality and consistency of your conversations with clients at the highest level.
Easily Scalable
VoIP offers any business the flexibility to grow without complicated reconfigurations, or outlay on expensive new hardware. Just add a user, configure them and off you go.
Have as many users, phones, numbers, lines as you need at the click of a few buttons.
VoIP keeps your business agile and allows you to move quickly when opportunities arise and beat your competitors to the next big deal.
Manage Your Own Users Easily
Built into most VoIP solutions is the ability to manage your own users, allowing you to change how they receive and make calls easily and on the fly. This means you can quickly act on staff issues, block calls from certain users, or redirect calls to specific users as and when required.
Make changes to your inbound call management based on times, for example, you may want calls to go to an “on-call” phone out of hours and that number may change on a weekly basis, or maybe you need to make specific changes during holiday seasons. Whatever you need to do, you can have complete control over it.
Better Sound Quality
VoIP is capable of much better sound quality than traditional phone lines and compared to some free Peer-to-Peer communication systems like Skype, that offer free calls to friends and family, but reduce the quality to keep the bandwidth usage minimal. VoIP uses various codecs to transfer the audio into a digital signal to be decoded at the other end and these digital signals are of very high quality and can scale up and down based on the available bandwidth from your internet provider/connection.
If you are using a headset to make and receive calls, you are likely to get a better quality from the hardware, on top of the quality of the signal from the VoIP connection, also the handsets you get for VoIP often come with HD sound quality built in.
Total Flexibility from Desk to Mobile
VoIP allows you to make and receive calls in multiple ways, which means you can be completely flexible when it comes to where you are making a call from. Let’s say you’re in the middle of an important call at your desk, but you need to head out to a meeting, you can push the call to your mobile, either by transferring to your mobile number (best for good call quality in low data signal areas), or to the mobile app included with your VoIP solution and continue the call from your office number on your mobile phone (works best in areas with good 4G and 5G signal).
Video Conferencing Included
With some VoIP solutions, such as Visyoo-Voice, you get video conferencing included as a feature, allowing you to share screens, message your team internally while on a call, check if they are available and give them a brief message about the call before transferring to them.
Video conferencing and call conferencing allows you to set a “dial in” number for people to use any phone to connect to the conference, meaning you can collaborate with anyone, anywhere.
Keep Your Old Number
VoIP allows you to port your existing phone number from your analogue line to your new digital VoIP line. There is usually a one-off fee for porting of around £25.00.
